Portable Wind Generator

About: An engineer who loves the nature and the recycling. Generally, I prefer to use recycling materials on my all projects.
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Hi everyone,

I tried make a wind energy turbine with an old floppy disk and some 3D parts. Its my first project on Instructables. I can made mistakes like forget to give some informations. If you have a question at the end of the project please contact me. You can find all components of project easily on your local seller. I made this project for using during to the camp.

As you know that, the energy is a big problem when you camp. Your mobile phone, headlamp or other devices can need to the charge.

For this, you need a power bank which one has a high capacity or you can go anywhere with your car. Especially, you can prefer the sun cells but they are so sensitive, they not charge when you sleeping and always they need perpendicular light angle for high performance. But, the wind is be always. In the time day, night, when you sleep or another time. Why we don't take advantage of wind when we are on camp? That's it! The Portable Wind Generator is here!

Let's we make it!

Supplies:

In this project we will use these parts seperatly, also you should know how to soldering.

Parts;

1- An old floppy disk

2- 20x20 sigma profiles or another square profiles (13 cm or more bigger)

3- F603ZZ bearings ( 2 pieces)

4- A rubber band

5- M3 bolts and nuts

6- A pen spring

7- 16V 1000 uF capacitors (2 pieces)

8- KBP 210 Rectifier bridge diots (2 pieces)

9- GT2 Pulley

10- Zip tie

Also you need this equipment;

1- A chargable drill or small screwer

2- Diagonal plier (small ones)

3- Soldering iron

4- Multimeter

5-Small hammer

6-Epoxy

7-Sand paper

8-Dremel or metal cutter

Teacher Notes

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Step 1: Mounting for Generator

Remove the floppy disk cover and you will see the stepper motor. Remove the metal and round shell of this motor by lifting it up. Where there are coils, 2 small screws will be holding our motor in the body. Remove these screws and set aside the part with the coils.

A black, plastic and round mounting piece will appear, and set it aside. After you have completely separated the stepper motor from the body, you can use a metal chisel or dremel for this. Make sure that the metal plate you cut is smoothly rounded and protects the original screw holes and install this part on the sigma profile. When doing so, make sure that the center of the cut piece is at least 5 cm below the end of the profile. Our stepper motor should then not rub against other parts. Mount the metal part to the profile in accordance with the above conditions and reinstall it as you have removed the stepper motor.

When the stage is over, you should have a piece like the one in the picture. Now we can move on to the next stage. When the stage is complete, gently adhere the GT2 pulley to the stepper motor shell with epoxy. Make sure that the center does not shift. Everything should be as linear as possible.

Step 2: Mounting for Propeller

Now, we have a pillar which has a stepper motor with. We need the propeller grab handle and the router for our project. For making of this part we follow these steps;

Preparation for installation First, drill a hole the middle of pillar which one using for propellers. Then, set a nut the middle on it and snap firmly. You should be sure the nut is strongly fitted. After that, combine with two pillars perpendicularly, and you should fixed with screws. It should be looked like the pictures, and the propellers are seated on the middle of up pillar. After this step we will assembling of the propeller. Assembling of propeller; When the finish of printing step we stick all parts together. The order of joining of the parts should be as follows;

1- 1st Bearing; (it should be set on the middle of pulley, you can use your soldering iron for perfectly fitting but you should dont forget use eopxy.)

2- 2nd Bearing (2nd bearing will be set on the middle of propeller handler. Again you can use with epoxy and soldering iron.)

3- Propeller Holder and Puley ( These two bearing part will sticking together. Use your epoxy again and be sure to be same line on the middle of bearings because we will be combining all parts with a screw.)

4- Screw head (you should select the longest M3 screw you have it, it can be 4 cm minimum. Heat the head of screw and press and mounted the "screw head" part which one is printed. It will not stick perfectly, wait for cooled. After that, stick the parts again with epoxy.) Now, we have ready for installation! We will assemble our workpieces together with the screw head we made in the 4th stage and attach them to the part where we install the nut for propelling and guiding the propeller. In this section, follow these steps;

1- Place the screw cap in the middle of the glued pulley part so that the bearings can bear the bearings and ensure that it can rotate easily. If it does not turn easily, return to the parts assembly steps and correct any errors.

2-Using the screw cap, insert the pulley and propeller holder by screwing it into the part where we initially install the nut. At this stage, it will be useful to install screw washers on top of the screw head.

3- As a final step, make sure that the center of your pulley matches the center of the gt2 pulley that we install on the stepper motor. While doing so, choose to move the propeller handle to the "forward - backward" profile.

4- Connect the stepper and pulley together with rubber band and check the rotation performance.

In this step, if all parts working easily and not have any swinging the parts you will you can proceed to the electronic stage!!

Attachments

Step 3: Mounting for Electronics

In this stage is very easy. Just follow these steps.

On KBP 210 or another rectifier diodes are generaly looks like the pictures. We use 2A and 1000V in this project because we dont have "high" voltages. Generally, the rectifier diodes are using for converting AC to DC again we use for it.

1- Attach the KBP210 to a location. Let the articles on it look at you,

2- Soldering: the negative pole of the capacitor to the negative pole of KBP; Make the plus pole to the plus pole. Do the same in both KBPs.

3- If you have a LED (its not neccessary), you can solder to same poles it. When your generator is getting generate the DC electricity this LED will be shining. If you use 2 different color for LEDs, they will be DC and AC power sign. At the end of the project, if the wind is not enough for your generating electricity, but the propellers turn the AC LED will be shining. When yours turbine generate the DC ( it means the capacitors are charge) will shine the DC LEDs.

4- This step is highly critical. Because the vital point is here. Now we solder the stepper and KBPs. In this stage, follow these steps; 1- Set your multimeter to diode mode.2-Control the coils IN-OUT wires. When you try this step, you will do this; connect the any wire with red probe and touch the other cables with black probe seperatly. When you hear the beep sound, these 2 cable should be soldering on AC pins which are on your KBP/CAP combinations.

3- Repeat the step 2 for other cables and KBPs.

5- Fix the soldered parts using with zip tie.

6-Solder the capacitors again with another cable so that the negative pole is negative to the other and the positive pole is positive to the other. Since the stepper motor is bi-polar, there are 2 different coil groups in reverse connection. So we have 4 cables and 2 groups of KBPs.

After connecting the capacitors to the right poles with the cable, our power doubled. The motor moves when the propellers rotate and we generate DC electricity after a certain rpm. This DC electrical accumulates in capacitors and the fluctuations are filtered. So, we always get the same output from our capacitors.

Step 4: Storage Unit

This is the easiest part of the project! You need just an USB-C cable (android phone cable) we will just cut the USB-A part which it is use for the connected PC of the cable. Then, we will soldering the capacitors output cable with USB cable. Black one is the negative and Red one is the positive pole for us. we dont use white and green ones. After that you will connect your powerbank to generator.

I hope you like it! If you have a question about anything please contact with me! Have enjoy!!